Plushenko to compete in 2014 Olympics

Jan 22, 2014

Lenta.ru

Russia’s mens skating star will take the ice in Sochi despite a poor preformance in the Russian national championships.

Russian figure skating star Evgeni Plushenko will
take part in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, despite recently taking silver
in the Russian championship in December and creating fears that his spot on the
national team was in jeopardy, R-Sport reported.

R-Sport, citing a source in the Sports Ministry,
reported that Plushenko will be the only Russian competing in the men’s singles
and will also take part in the team tournament, which makes its debut at the
Sochi Games.

Related:

The Sports Ministry has submitted its official
composition of the Russian national team for the Olympics to the Executive
Committee of the Russian Olympic Committee, according to the source in the
ministry. “On Thursday that document will be approved by [the
committee]," the source was quoted as saying.

On January 21 Plushenko gave a demonstration of his
Olympic program, and said he was happy with his own performance. Earlier in
this season he lost the Russian championship to 18-year-old Maksim Kovtunov,
who immediately became the main candidate to represent Russia at the Games,
which start in Sochi on February 7. Last week, however, Kovtunov delivered a
poor performance at the European championship, coming only fifth.

The composition of the Russian figure skating team
will be officially announced on January 23. Apart from Plushenko, it will
also include three pairs, three dancing duos, and two women in the singles
category. Five sets of medals will be up for grabs in figure skating, including
the team tournament.

The Sochi Games will be the fourth in Plushenko’s
career. He won silver in Salt Lake City in 2002, losing out to another Russian,
Aleksey Yagudin. Four years later he won gold at the Turin Games. In 2010 he
took another silver medal in Vancouver, losing to America's Evan Lysacek.